Giving Thanks...

 As a thank you to my readers, I'm offering 15% off all purchases from my Etsy store now through December 3rd. 

 Enter coupon code BLACKFRIDAY15 at checkout. 

   Hope your Thanksgiving celebration is bountiful!

Bathroom Rehab...

 Our house was built in the early 90's and there's much I would like to change about it so we've been working on it one room at a time.  We finished the main floor bath last summer so decided to get the upper "guest" bathroom done before the kids come home from college for the Holidays. No, that's not hardwood flooring, it's peel and stick vinyl faux wood, not pretty.

We ripped out everything but the bathtub and tiled it with my favorite hexagon tiles in "Milk" with brown edges.

 I had hoped to use an antique dresser I still had in the basement that didn't sell with the rest of the stuff in the shop.  We must have procrastinated for a good week, scared to death to start cutting the darn thing up because we were sure we would totally screw it up.  Finally, one Thursday, after measure literally 19 times I cut the hole in the top for the sink...and guess what, it fit!

Then, a few days later I gathered the courage to cut the drawers to fit around the plumbing since I wanted them functional for storage.  I wasn't as worried about the drawers, heck, if I could cut the hole for the sink I could cut up a couple of drawers, right?  Tom was more worried about my handling of the power saw then of my measuring!  Next time I won't be so scared to cut...actually, who am I kidding, we've only got the master bathroom left and there's no way we're tackling that one alone...someone else will be responsible for that rehab...too much to do in that room for a couple of amateurs like us!

I have to say, I love the way it turned out!

Glittered Paper Houses...

Last Friday was my monthly art group...I hosted the activity and choose to make little Putz-like glittered houses.  These are photos of my finished houses...I didn't get them completely finished that evening but did manage to finish them up over the weekend.  You can find all sorts of different templates on Pinterest, I used the ones found here. While there are six of us in the art group, all our tastes vary greatly so I thought this would be a good project because we can tailor the houses to fit our personal style.

You can see the roofs aren't completely glued down and some of my doors are a little off-kilter but that's okay...I still love how they turned out, and they'll fit in just fine with my other vintage Putz houses that have been a little mis-handled over the years.

I think I might throw a little more mica snow on them but otherwise I'm quite pleased with them and might just make a few more if I find some extra time.  Happy Friday!

New York Travel Journal...

 I finished my New York Travel Journal 2013 last night...I went full throttle to get it done so I wouldn't forget what we did...felt like so long ago already if I would have waited any longer I surely would have forgotten everything!

 I usually make the journal ahead of time and I'm beginning to realize I NEVER make it thick enough...my journals always end up so bulky they never close properly...and this one was no exception.

Tom and I decided to take this trip on (sort of) the spur of the moment.  Thirteen years ago (almost to the day) he proposed to me in Times Square.  We found the exact spot where I agreed to be his wife but it sure had changed...and...wouldn't you know it, a man interrupted us during our private moment to ask for some money...just our luck!

This little pink pocket (I think it's Amy Tangerine) holds the little book I made before the trip listing all the places I wanted to visit, in which borough it's located and the address (with cross streets)...this little book came with me everywhere and I referred to it quite often.  It was very helpful because, let me tell you, we got lost more times than we could count in the West Village, SoHo and Little Italy!

Our hotel was very nice with Central Park South right out the front door...the nighttime view was spectacular.

Our subway adventure was really something too...we wanted to head to the NYU area and ended up in Harlem!  Although we discovered our error relatively quickly, we were on the "Express" A Train so had to just roll with it until the darn thing finally made a stop where we could switch trains.

The last day of our trip we spent checking out Central Park...that was quite an adventure.  You never know just how far you walked until it's time to walk back...probably should have jumped on another train!

 Goodbye New York, until we meet again!

NYC Treasures...

 Here's a little peek at the goodies I found in Manhattan, Soho and the West Village.  First stop was Tinsel Trading on Lexington in Midtown Manhattan...

The store was much smaller than I anticipated but it did not disappoint...there were boxes of new old stock piled to the ceiling!  I'll be using some of this shiny vintage bullion in my December Daily.

I put this little tin with jars in my carry-on for the flight home so I would be sure they wouldn't break (they were wrapped pretty good) but TSA did not like it, they pulled me aside, unwrapped each little jar and tested them for drugs.  The lady checking it commented on how cute it was and wanted to know what I was going to do with it...she just couldn't understand though when I tried to tell her I'd put glitter, buttons and trinkets in the jars...she must not craft.

New old stock millinery and vintage silver tinsel.

I wasn't planning on dragging Tom to Purl Soho but when we happened upon it on our way to Rachel Ashwell I couldn't resist, plus they had a nice place for Tom to rest his feel while I shopped.  Got this fantastic Liberty fabric at a way-too-high price...but no regrets!

and also in Soho was Pearl River Mart on Broadway...the store was so pretty and colorful (they also had a place for Tom to sit and rest his feet).  I even got a few stocking stuffers although I didn't photograph them on the very slim chance my daughter reads this.  I'm very much looking forward to making stuff with it all, hopefully Friday I can dig in!

Off On An Adventure...

 Tinsel Trading, here I come!

Have a good weekend.  I'm pretty sure I will!

What I'm Working On...

I ordered prints of about 80 of my Instagram photos from Origrami.com. 

They print the photos similar to retro Polaroids and as an added bonus, for the back you can choose from a few different themes like a retro camera silhouette, postcard style, a map of your Instagram photo location...or it'll print the first comment from your Instagram post...doesn't matter which you order, they're all super cute.

 Sorta makes me cringe when I glue it down cause the back is just as cute as the front.

And if pretty packaging is your thing, you'll love that your photos come in a cute little "photo file" box with a white silhouette of a retro camera printed on it (just like on the back of the photos.)

 I've been slowly adding my origrami prints to this journal I made at the end of 2012...

 I still have a million photos to add but I'm just taking my time, enjoying the process.

 Maybe I'll finish by the end of 2014?

Long-Legged Spiders...

I saw this vintage spider book on Pinterest and fell in love with the graphics on the cover.  I wouldn't say that I like spiders, cause I really could do without them, but don't you agree the graphics are something else?  So I decided I needed to find one for myself.  

Amazon is always my go to place and they had a few...all shipping from England???  I suppose I could investigate the book a little more closely to see if it was published in England but either way, I found one in great condition for a great price and the shipping was totally reasonable.

I'm always a little scared to buy from Amazon cause you don't always know with 100% certainty that you're going to get the exact cover you want, and since that's really what drew me to this book, my finger hovered over the "buy" button for a few minutes before I got up the nerve to just do it. (Something that I do waaay too often!)

And I just noticed that it says: "Made in Great Britain" so I guess that answers that (see photo above)

It really is a cute little book (and it is little, measuring barely 5 x 7) with 34 pages of text and 24 creepy, crawly Plates...way more than I ever wanted to know about spiders but I'm sure glad I finally hit that "buy" button!  :)

Halloween Decorating...

 I absolutely love Halloween. I love haunted houses, scary movies (as long as the hubby isn't out of town), the creepy decorations and I love dressing in costume to hand out candy.

My two oldest, who love Halloween as much as I do, are away at college so I find that I decorate less each year...this pleases my one remaining child as he just plain ol' hates Halloween and forbids me to put out anything too scary...he must get that from his dad's side of the family.  I guess that just means there's less junk to put away in the end!

I made a few paper mache witch hats, this little bat boy and a glow-in-the-dark spider wreath...I'm going for a glow-in-the-dark theme this year for the trick-or-treaters.

 

Now, if only I could stop myself from eating all the Halloween candy!

Treasures...

This arrived in the mail yesterday...can't tell you how happy I am about it.  I've been wanting this book for some time now (love the movie Out of Africa) but I didn't want to pay a ton of money for it...seems that everyone wants it now because of the zebra stripe cover.  I scored mine for mere pennies (okay, maybe mere dollars, but nowhere near what they go for on Etsy or Ebay)

I got the fantastic antique typewriter at this weekend's flea market for only $5.00...only down fall is that it's REALLY, REALLY heavy.

And these are my other flea market treasures...didn't find a ton of stuff but I'm so happy with what I did find!  $4.00 doll head anyone?  No??